SACC Gratitude Diary

GRATITUDE NOTES FOR TERM 2 SO FAR

SACC STAFF ARE THANKFUL FOR:

• Staff singing together, praying together all while online from our own homes.
• Letting our students ‘in’ on our lives is good.
• Watching a webinar with Michael Carr-Greg on anxiety during this Covid19 period we are all going through. The 5 points highlighted for us all to keep in mind, parents, students and teachers are helpful - Enough sleep, Exercise everyday, Mindfulness (thinking of others), Diet & Positive relationships.
• The parents hard work and commitment to have worksheets printed, prepare their children's workspaces and set up their child's Continuous Learning day.
• The joy on students faces as they share their work via online platforms.

SACC FAMILIES ARE THANKFUL FOR:

• The excitement for Term 2 and learning in an entirely new way! - Alisha W, Prep S
• ​We appreciate what you’re doing in transforming face-to-face teaching & learning into online mode, which is difficult. We’re sure you and others at St Andrews have spent many hours making online learning possible. Thank you for your dedication. - Mei & David Kong, Parents
• The SACC Staff for their doing so well at remote teaching. We submitted our thanks to the Telstra text line and it was displayed on the Melbourne Telstra Building! - The Elbourne family
   

THE JOY OF THE LORD IS YOUR STRENGTH

Praise be to the Lord, for He has heard my cry for mercy.

The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him,

and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to Him in song. - Psalm 28:6-7

In times of need and fear it is in our nature to see first the things we lack and allow worry to take a stronghold in our lives. As Christians we know that to put Christ first we will find hope. Hope that God has a plan for us, that tomorrow will be better. Take your troubles to the Lord and you will find strength for tomorrow.

Holding onto the Hope of Jesus we start to see the joy in things around us. When worry is cast aside our sight is clear of doubts and troubles and we learn to appreciate all we have. God gave us our life and he plans for us to have all there is to sustain our lives. How mighty our God is - a God who loves us so much that he gave His only son, so that we might live. 

As you look around and see the beauty in creation itself, a delicate and beautiful flower or an amazing sunrise, take joy in this moment and remember you too are unique and crafted by God's hand. May I encourage you to take time out of each day to look back on the moments you can be thankful to God for (it could be your child's ability to problem solve like they've never done before). Keep your focus on Christ and you will find the joy of the lord is your strength for this season.

God Bless,

Susan de Kretser

Marketing and Communications Coordinator

THE HEROES AMONG US

I have always loved the statement “Not all heroes wear capes”. I have seen so much in this season that has illustrated once again the amazing community we have here at St Andrews Christian College. While this is a season of incredible pressure and challenge, I have been so blessed to see the “Heroes” of this time. You the parents are absolute heroes. You have jumped into the role of teacher and parent with grace and commitment. As a Junior School staff we are incredibly blessed to have you as parents to our students, thank you for finding devices, printing worksheets, clicking on links, watching us all jump around in videos, solving IT challenges and trying to work from home. You really are Heroes!

The other Heroes are my incredible staff! They have all become IT experts overnight and defied all the challenges to make school fun, engaging and be the best it possibly can be. I want to honour my team they are truly amazing.

There is much to enjoy in this season if you look for it, which is what the Junior School staff have been aiming to do. It has been amazing to see the simple joy expressed on the students faces as they share their work over the variety of platforms online. This morning several classes hosted Zoom devotions time and while a little crazy it was so wonderful to see the students. 

Roman 12:12 NIV says:

“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer”

I have been reading this everyday as we face these challenging times. I have full confidence in the character of our God that he will hold us in this journey. I choose to be joyful in the Hope I have in Him, try to be patient - that one is harder - and to continue to pray every day for us all. We are in this together and with Him we cannot fail.

God bless you all and give your kids hugs from us all.

Mrs Yvonne Hughes

Head of Junior School

SACC STUDENTS FEELING THANKFUL

SIMPLE TRUST

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths” Proverbs 3:5-6

Eleanor Turnbull, a veteran missionary to Haiti, collected and translated the prayers of the Christians who lived in the mountains of Haiti. These profound and child-like prayers are recorded in the book God Is No Stranger. Here are two prayers about God's grace and protection.

Lord,

How glad we are that we don't hold you,

you hold us.

Lord,

Don't let us put our load of trouble in a basket on our head.

Help us put them on Jesus' head.

Then we won't have headaches.

I love reading these prayers because they demonstrate a simple trust that people have in their heavenly father.

As you are well aware, we are currently facing times of significant uncertainty and because of these circumstances, life is looking very different (school included!). Despite these challenging times, I want to encourage us to continually place our faith in Christ, trusting in His sovereignty and goodness more than what we see is happening around us. 

I want to thank all the staff, students and parents for all their hard work and flexibility as we recommence Continuous Online Learning for Term 2. Even though school does look different, it’s been so encouraging to hear the wonderful feedback from families about the fantastic learning that is happening in the Middle School. 

Keep up the great work!

Mr Daniel Lee

Head of Middle School